Cop arrested for rape of colleague’s daughter

A police officer from the Mondeor police station was arrested for allegedly raping his colleague's 13-year-old daughter.

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Johannesburg - A police officer from the Mondeor police station in Joburg South was arrested early on Wednesday for allegedly raping his 13-year-old neighbour, who is a fellow officer’s daughter.

Spokeswoman for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Grace Langa said the incident happened late on Tuesday afternoon after the girl’s mother sent her to the warrant officer’s house to deliver his pressed shirts.

The warrant officer’s wife had left him and a colleague’s wife, who is a neighbour, was ironing his shirts for him.

Langa said when the girl arrived to give the warrant officer his shirts, he pushed her into the bedroom.

“He then forced himself on her… he was drunk.”

The two officers worked at the Mondeor police station and through that they became family friends.

“We are scheduling counselling for the young girl for this afternoon… it only happened yesterday, so it’s all still very fresh,” Langa said.

She told The Star that the officer was still not sober this morning and was drunk when he was arrested.

“The officer has an apparent history of domestic violence. For now, we have been collecting DNA and we will be sending other units, including the dog unit, in to find more evidence at the scene,” Langa said.

She said he would only appear in court on Thursday because he was not able to give a statement in his drunken state.

“We will take a statement from him once he has sobered up,” she said.

He is currently being held at the Vosloorus police station.

The issue of domestic violence committed by police officers has been in the spotlight recently following several incidents over the past month.

Earlier this week, a police officer from the Florida police station was arrested after “accidentally” shooting his wife in the face.

The officer said he had been trying to commit suicide when his wife intervened. It was then that a shot went off, hitting his wife, he said in a statement to the police upon his arrest.

“Following the shooting, the officer’s wife woke up from her injuries and gave a similar testimony. She told investigating officers she had tried to grab the gun from her husband as he was trying to commit suicide, the gun went off and she was shot in the face,” Langa said.

In an unrelated incident, a Pretoria police officer was arrested on Tuesday after being on the run for days. He allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted his wife whom he suspected of cheating on him.

Last month a police officer shot his wife before turning the gun on himself at the Tshwane Police Training College.

The murder-suicide happened a day after the commemoration of police officers who had died in the line of duty over the past year where President Jacob Zuma called for both action and debate on the killing of police officers.

Also last month, this time in Pretoria West, a police officer shot and killed his wife and daughter following an argument he’d had with his wife the day before.

The officer then took his son and nephew to a neighbour’s home and turned himself over to the police.

*Comments have been closed to protect the identity of the minor mentioned in the article.

ilanit.chernick@inl.co.za

@LanC_02

The Star